The summer before 1st grade, I saw Star Wars. Then the toys came out! My mom was gonna buy me 2 action figures, but then I got chicken pox so she bought me 5 of ‘em! Sweet! I mean the toys were sweet. Chicken pox sucked! I had those itchy things everywhere. EVERYWHERE! Yes, even there. I grew up on Star Wars. It was torture waiting the 3 or 4 years between movies. I was miserable. Not “Chicken Pox in my crack” miserable but close. I saw Empire Strikes Back the summer before 4th grade. It was probably the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my short life. My older cousin, Tim Hay, was so excited after seeing it that he screamed to his mom (waiting in the car)as he ran past the line waiting to get in, “MOM! Darth Vader is Lukes father!!!!” The summer before 7th grade I saw Return of the Jedi and the trilogy was complete. Star Wars was very influential during my formative years. I even remember one of the fights my mom and step-dad got into. It was pretty bad. I worked up the courage to go plead with them to stop. “If Luke and Darth Vader can get along then so can you!”, I said through tears. It didn’t work, my step-dad was a drunk a-hole. Man, if anyone deserved chicken pox in their crack, but I digress. In my 7th grade class photo, I’m wearing a Return of the Jedi t-shirt with a scout trooper on a speeder bike. Clearly, girls were not in the picture at that point. As you can imagine, when I heard that George Lucas was making a prequel trilogy, I was stoked! And, just like most 34 year old comic book collectors still renting out moms garage, I was sadly disappointed by Episodes 1 and 2. Maybe I was different? Perhaps, I was less innocent and less willing to suspend disbelief to really recapture the magic? Or maybe, just maybe those movies were craptastic. Most likely the latter. They did have elements that were terrific, but the overall impression I got was that movie making technology was the star of the show. Anyhoo, I could go into WAY more detail, but then Matt Steele and I would have half as much stuff to talk about at lunch tomorrow. After seeing Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith, I am happy to report that I DID NOT HATE IT! It was pretty dang cool. Of course, I have my nerd criticisms but it really was some good drama set in an incredible looking universe. I just knew that the magic was still there. Some say that these are kids movies and are worse for adults, kinda like Chicken Pox. Man, I can’t imagine that stuff in my adult crack. Ouch!